City Beat
WG butcher shop closes because of energy bills, economy
Country Style's last day was July 7
By Kate Carter
California's energy crisis and economic downturn have claimed a Willow Glen victim.
Country Style butcher, caterer and deli, 1560 Hamilton Ave. near Meridian Avenue, closed its meat locker door for the last time July 8 after rising energy costs and falling catering orders made the business unsustainable.
"I'm more bitter toward PG&E because they're the ones who kind of put this falling out on the way," owner Mike Musso said. "I just kind of figure it's not just happening to me, and it's not because I didn't run this place well."
Musso and his wife, Catherine, realized his 10-year dream of working in the food industry and bought the shop last June, operating in the space that has been a butcher shop since the mid-1980s.
Musso said he and his family and friends put a lot of time and energy into turning the stalling business around, and the work was paying off in a growing lunch deli business.
But in the year he owned it, Musso said, the shop's energy bills went from $900 to $2,400 per month. Plus, he said, PG&E took five months to transfer its bills to the new owner and left the business with a $600-a-month payment plan to pay off $7,000 of old bills.
"My bill this month was almost $3,000," he said. "It's just a lot of compounded things. We can only raise prices so high before people leave."
The Mussos first noticed a drop-off in catering sales in March, Musso said, and that sales wouldn't cover their energy costs. Much of their catering business had come from high-tech companies that were cutting costs of their own.
They chose to close the store this month before they used up too much of their retirement money or lost their Willow Glen home, he said.
Ken Heiman, spokesman for the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, said he hasn't seen many local small businesses closing recently, although they are paying more attention to the energy and economic situations.
The chamber, as well as the city's environmental services department, offer programs to help small businesses during these tentative times. Even though things haven't gotten bad yet, Heiman said, "that's not to say it couldn't happen," especially for businesses in competitive markets.
Musso says his wife, who works for a legal firm in the same building, has seen a bankruptcy lawyer's business grow in recent months. And Willow Glen Business and Professional Association President Karen Naegeli, whose Able Printing business is next door to Musso's, pointed across the street to the McWhorter's stationers, closing their doors this summer. She said her company, which is doing fine, is losing an important friend in the business.
Musso said he feels bad about closing. "This valley really has lost a very good resource," Musso said.
The store specialized in upper grade meats and was the only place that retailed prime and buffalo meats, he said. It also sold turtle, ostrich, kangaroo and alligator meat, among other range-raised meats, and had its own Italian sausage recipe. Musso said they hope to continue to sell the sausage through an outside distributor.
"I know a lot of people still want to get it," he said.
Musso's five-year lease could be transferred to Stuft Pizza, he said, which may be moving from its large Campbell location to the smaller Willow Glen space that it can better afford.
Musso said he may return to working as a service representative manager, which he did before owning the butcher shop. He doesn't have plans to return to retail, restaurant or catering before the economy improves and energy bills become more reasonable, he said.
"It's just the signs of the times," Musso said. "This is hitting a lot of people. Unless you've got a big bank to sit on and wait it out, close it up."
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
